


I Scraped My Knee Falling For You

by Speedingbullets



Category: Paranatural (Webcomic)
Genre: M/M, a bunch of people sent me writing prompts on tumblr so i'm turning them into one big fic
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-12-17
Updated: 2015-12-19
Packaged: 2018-05-07 07:20:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,120
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5448041
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Speedingbullets/pseuds/Speedingbullets
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Johnny Jhonny THOUGHT he had all his emotions sorted out.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

Johnny sighed, staring down at the construction paper card he held in his hand. This was a stupid idea, trying to invite Max to hang out with him. Max obviously would rather spend time with the other Activity Club kids, running around, uh, levitating…? Whatever it was they even did.  Johnny really wanted to hang out with Max, thought, at least just once. So there he stood, in front of what he THOUGHT was Max’s locker, holding a corny valentine-like card on paper as red as his hair.

The card simply read, “Yo Max. You wanna hang out sometime? –Johnny” and at the bottom, written as neatly as he possibly could, was his phone number.

The bell was going to ring soon, he realized, and the kids who weren’t currently ditching class were going to rush out. Including the new kid, who would probably notice Johnny standing there, y’know, in front of his locker. Johnny had to make a decision, fast. Should he leave the note? Or should he bail and, well, not leave the note?

“Screw it,” he mumbled to himself, and with a swift kick to the metal door, the locker swung open. Okay, this was definitely Max’s locker. He carefully placed the note inside and closed the door, then quickly hurried away from the locker before he could change his mind. The bell rang not too long afterwards, and Johnny lurked nearby, keeping a close eye on Max’s locker. He watched as Max approached his locker, as Max organized his belongings, as Max picked up the little red card, read it, shoved it into his hoodie’s pocket, then picked up his backpack and walked away.

                Johnny wasn’t quite sure what he was expecting to see when Max saw the note, but he had to admit that the new kid’s lack of reaction was… a bit disappointing. With a sigh, he turned and walked back to his own locker, gathered his stuff, and headed home.

                Right when he walked in the door of his house, he heard his phone buzz.

                _That literally has to be the corniest way to ask someone to hang out._

                Johnny groaned inwardly. He should’ve known Max wouldn’t be interested. What was he thinking, leaving that card in the guy’s locker? Idiot. His phone buzzed again.

                _But I’ll totally hang out with you. Maybe this weekend?_

               Well then.

                Johnny definitely wasn’t expecting that, and he stared at his phone in disbelief for quite some time. Eventually he wandered to his bedroom and sat down on the edge of his neatly-made bed, and he read the text one more time before finally remembering to respond.

                _Sounds great._

Now all he would have to do was wait. One more painfully slow day of school, and then the weekend would come around and he’d be able to actually spend some time with Max. Admittedly, Johnny thought Max was… a pretty cool guy.

                Friday was a blur of boring classwork and lectures and… Max. He kept the new kid in his peripheral vision whenever he could. In class and in the hallways between classes, he’d steal a glance at him. He was pretty excited about being able to hang out with Max.

                Not that he’d ever admit that out loud.

                 Saturday came around the corner quickly. Johnny woke up at about 8:00 that morning to the sound of his phone alerting him of a new text message. He groaned and rolled over, pulling his blankets closer to his body. A small though popped into his half-asleep mind.

                What if it’s Max?

                He shot up, suddenly wide awake, heart pounding. He got out of bed and raced over to his phone to check his messages, wondering why he was so excited. It was just some guy, it really wasn’t anything special. It wasn’t like they were planning on going on a _date_ or anything.

                Johnny laughed to himself. A date? With Max? C’mon, that’s ridiculous. And yet, he could feel butterflies fluttering in his stomach at the thought. Pfft, that was nothing. He was just hungry, probably. He went to the kitchen, pouring himself a bowl of cereal. He pulled his phone out again and finally read the text message as he ate his breakfast.

                _My dad’s making me and my sis work this morning. We can hang out this afternoon. Your place or mine?_

                Johnny quirked an eyebrow. Work on what? Maybe it was a personal thing. Johnny decided not to ask. He responded to Max’s text almost immediately.

                _How about_ _my house?_   

                A few minutes elapsed. Johnny finished his cereal and put his dishes in the sink, wandering back to his room and laying back down. If Max isn’t gonna be available till the afternoon, he might as well relax a little bit longer.

                _Sounds great. You probably wouldn’t like my house anyways lol_

                Johnny frowned.

                _Why not?_

_It’s just… unconventional._

                The red-haired boy decided not to question it. He texted the new kid his address, then put his phone back down and closed his eyes.

                He woke up again to the sound of the doorbell. He jumped out of bed and rushed to the door, only to find that it was a package delivery for his parents. He sighed, brought the package inside, and then wandered back to his room. Realizing he should wear something a little more presentable than his pajamas, he quickly changed into a tee shirt and some ripped jeans and ran some gel through his hair.

                The doorbell rang again at precisely 2:30 PM. Johnny, again, rushed to go open it, but took a brief moment before he opened the door to collect himself (and fix his hair a little). Opening the door, he breathed a sigh of relief when it wasn’t another package being delivered.

                There, in the doorway, stood Mayview Middle School’s newest student, Maxwell Puckett. He looked like a complete dweeb, with his dumb “insolent children” hoodie and a pair of gray shorts. He actually looked kind of cute—no. No way. Max Puckett, cute??? No! He wasn’t cute at all, he was a big nerd. Nerds aren’t cute at all.

                “Hey,” Max said as Johnny invited him inside. “Sorry, I’m a bit later than I expected. My dad made me walk.”

                Johnny suddenly felt kinda bad for breaking the new kid’s scooter.

                “It’s cool,” Johnny said, “Was pretty busy this mornin’, anyways. Glad you took your time.” That was a complete lie, but hey—he had to preserve his ‘cool guy’ status. Couldn’t have this nerd knowing he was sitting around doing nothing but thinking about him all morning.

                “Here,” Johnny said, breaking a brief awkward silence that had fallen over the two. “I’ll show ya around.” And he proceeded to do just that, giving Max a tour of his home. They ended up in Johnny’s room, and the two boys sat down on the edge of Johnny’s bed.

                Crap. Johnny should’ve planned something to do before Max got here.

                “So, uh.” The bright red-haired boy said, trying to break the awkwardness between them.  “Wanna play some video games or somethin?”

                “Sure,” the new boy said, with a shrug of his shoulders. “What kinda games do you have?”

                “a lotta fighting games,” Johnny said. “wanna play Super Smash Bros.?”

                “Sure,” Max said, watching Johnny set up the game. He tossed Max a controller.

                “You’d better not cry like a baby when you lose,” He said with a wide grin.

                “Oh, you don’t have to worry about that,” The new kid shot back, “because I’m not losing.”

                It ended up being the best day of Johnny’s life.

 


	2. Chapter 2

Monday rolled around the corner pretty quickly, and soon Johnny found himself turning in some permission slip to a dumb science class field trip or something with a fake signature on it. He really didn’t want to go, but RJ and Ollie were going (and also, why turn up a perfectly good opportunity to ditch class). So, he crowded into Mr. Garcia’s room with the thirty other students who had decided to go on this trip—nerds, mostly, Johnny thought to himself as he scanned the room. They were all people who actually _cared_ about class. Mr. Garcia read off a list of names, two at a time. Great. Lab partners. Johnny could only hope he was stuck with someone at least slightly decent.

_Cody and Jeff. Violet and Lisa. RJ and Ollie._

Crap. Since RJ and Ollie were paired together, and Stephen wasn’t going on the trip at all… Johnny shuddered at the thought of _actually_ getting paired up with a nerd.

_Johnny Jhonny…_

He looked around the room, muscles tense.

_… And Maxwell Puckett._

Johnny locked eyes with the new kid, relaxing just a little bit. Okay, this wasn’t going to be too bad. Max was tolerable. More than tolerable, actually. Turns out Max could actually be a pretty cool guy to be around.

“… You should not leave your partner at any time,” Mr. Garcia droned on, “If I find anyone by themselves, they’re going to be sent straight back to school. No exceptions.”

With that, the students were led to a school bus and led to a small river on the other side of Mayview. Johnny groaned. So they were leaving class to look at _bugs_ that lived in the river? Ugh, what a waste of time.

Mr. Garcia gave everyone the instructions and sent the kids off to explore the river and look for “diversity” in the “ecosystem”, and as soon as they got out of earshot of the science teacher, Johnny grabbed Max by the arm.

“Dude, let’s ditch.”

“ _What?”_

“Let’s ditch this dumb thing, c’mon. It’ll be fun.”

“But I really need to get a good grade--”

“Oh hush, ya big nerd, we’ll just copy off of Ollie an’ RJ’s answers later.”

Max sighed and rolled his eyes, probably realizing that arguing with Johnny was the most pointless thing ever.

“Mr. Garcia won’t even notice we’re gone,” Johnny continued, with a sly grin.

“Doesn’t seem like I have much of a choice here,” the new kid grumbled.

“Nope! Ya don’t. Now come on.” Johnny let go of Max’s arm and motioned for him to follow, turning and beginning to walk along the bank of the river. Johnny didn’t really know where they’d end up, but anywhere away from school-related activities was fine with him. Eventually, Johnny’s legs got tired from walking, so he sat down on a large rock nearby, and Max took a seat next to him.

“See, isn’t this so much better than digging bugs outta the mud?”

“I guess,” Max said with a sigh, gazing out at the winding river in front of the two of them.

It was pretty nice, actually. The weather was decent, a cool breeze passing every once in a while. The bubbling river filled the silence, made it a little less awkward, along with the chirping birds up above. Perhaps it would even be considered a bit romantic—no. no way. Romantic? This was Maxwell Puckett he was with, not someone he was dating. Hah. No way.  Johnny stared up at the trees and sighed.

“We should hang out again sometime,” He said, combing his fingers through his flaming red hair. He only got a small, content hum in response, but that was okay. Johnny knew that meant ‘yeah’.

The new kid leaned back on the rock and gazed up at the sky for a bit, then closed his eyes. Johnny took this opportunity to get a good look at Max’s face (without seeming too creepy or awkard). He observed the small smile, the soft curve of the boy’s nose, and the light freckles that dusted the boy’s face. He had to resist the urge to brush his fingers through Max’s short, fluffy hair. He tore his eyes away and groaned internally. Max wasn’t _that_ cute, come on. Pfffft. He was mediocre, at best.

A few minutes passed before Max perked up again, sitting up and looking back towards where they had come from.

“Maybe we should head back,” He said softly, “Mr. Garcia is probably planning on taking everyone back to school soon.”

Max was right, sadly. He nodded, and the new kid jumped off the rock, Johnny following suit.

“I’ll race you back,” Johnny said.

“You’re on.”

Max ended up winning, of course. The two boys climbed back onto the bus and headed back with the rest of their class. Johnny stared out the bus window, wondering how the day possibly managed to go by so quickly.

“Admit it, Johnny,” Ollie said to him as the gang walked home from school later that afternoon. “You totally have a crush on Maxwell Puckett.”

“I do _not._ ”


End file.
